User blog comment:Dewface/Randomness/@comment-2006360-20101026200756

The Walrus reads more:

The Allegory of the Cave: Part One
And now, let me show in a figure how far out nature is enlightened or unenlightened: Behold! Humans in an underground prison, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching along the cave; these humans have been here since childhood, and have their legs and neck chained so they canot move, and can only see in front of them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like a screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets. And men are passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone, appearing over the wall. Some of them are talking, some silent. Like ourselves, the prisoners only see their shadows, or the shadows or one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave. And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows. And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them? Suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side. Would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow? To them, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.